Paper claims Karadzic struck deal with US

MONTENEGRO:A Montenegrin newspaper published a document yesterday that it claimed showed the United States had promised "lifelong safety" to fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic if he agreed to withdraw from politics, writes Daniel McLaughlin.

The agreement appeared to carry the signatures of Dr Karadzic, who is indicted for genocide against the Muslims of Srebrenica by the UN court in The Hague, and Richard Holbrooke, the US official who helped broker the so-called Dayton Accords that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Dr Karadzic and his chief ally, Gen Ratko Mladic, have been on the run for more than a decade, and the EU has warned Serbia and Bosnia they will not be allowed to join the union before the men are captured or proven to be hiding elsewhere.

While Gen Mladic is believed to be in Serbia and receiving help from senior military and intelligence figures, Dr Karadzic is thought to be hiding in the Serb-run sector of Bosnia or the remote mountains of Montenegro where he grew up.

The failure of international forces in Bosnia and the West's secret services to catch Dr Karadzic has long kindled rumours that he made a deal with Mr Holbrooke to withdraw from public life in return for a guarantee that he would not be caught and tried by the UN court.

Dr Karadzic's wife claims the two men signed a document to that effect in June 2006, but the former US official denies any such deal was made.

Nato believes the last sighting of Dr Karadzic (61), a psychiatrist and poet, was at a Serb Orthodox monastery in eastern Bosnia in 2003, and he has been rumoured to move between hideouts disguised as an Orthodox priest.

Washington is offering a $5 million (€3.75 million) reward for Dr Karadzic's capture, but the UN's chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said last year it was "pathetic" that no one was searching for him.

Earlier this year, Moscow denied Bosnian newspaper reports that tapped calls had traced him to Russia.

Multinational forces in Bosnia occasionally raid houses belonging to relatives or friends of Dr Karadzic, but do not appear to be any closer to catching the former Bosnian Serb president.

Yesterday, Nato soldiers searched the home of a brother of Stojan Zupljanin, a former ally of Dr Karadzic who is also wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal.